The Velocity Micro Edge M40 exists in an edgy niche, where you'd want to spend an extra $1,000 for more components than you get in a mainstream general-purpose PC. But the weak dual graphics card performance in this configuration is a deal-breaker.

The Velocity Micro Edge M40 ($2,980 direct) wants to bring hard-core gaming down to a more earthly price. As such, the M40 uses a relatively modest (but still quad-core) AMD Phenom 9600 processor instead of the overclocked Core 2 Extreme CPU found in many $5K boxes these days. Other pluses are a pair of ATI's Radeon HD 3870 graphics cards in a CrossFire configuration, dual 750GB hard drives, and a Blu-ray reader. On paper, this is a great system, but because of a flaw that's not really Velocity Micro's fault, the Edge is a bit underwhelming.

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All of the Edge's parts are high-end, just below top-of-the-line for each category. The version we got came in VM's Signature case, so it's a pretty beast with a windowed side panel to show off its dual-card goodness. All of the internal wiring is neatly routed, and there's a lot of shiny copper in this system. The system's ASUS M3A32-MVP Deluxe motherboard will support up to four PCIe x16 graphics cards, though the case and motherboard layout will support only another Radeon 3870 double-width card. You can, of course, slip a PCIe x1 or x4 card (like modem or networking cards) into the free x16 slot. For further expansion, a pair of free DIMM slots lets you add more memory, and there are several slots for additional hard drives. To maintain the clean interior wiring, I would recommend using VM's upgrade service (from $99 and up, not including shipping and handling) for the hard drives or extra graphics card(s), rather than doing it yourself.

Although this system is mostly about playing games, it can also be used to play high-definition movies. It comes with a Blu-ray read-only drive. That drive will also burn CDs and DVDs.

This looks like a great gaming and multimedia system, but because of a problem with ATI's drivers at the time of this review, I cannot recommend this configuration merely on its potential. This dual graphics card setup just doesn't pay off. Sure, there's a slight improvement in the system's 3DMark06 score compared with (less-expensive) single-card systems, but 3DMark06 isn't an actual gameit's a test designed to show the system's potential for playing 3D games. While still empirically speedy, the Edge M40 isn't a whole lot faster than a system like the $1,100 Gateway FX7020 with its single nVidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics card. The Edge M40 returns an almost-playable 47 frames per second in Crysis at 1,280 by 1,024 (medium quality), but that's only 10 fps faster than the FX7020. Things are even closer on the World in Conflict test at the same resolution: The Edge got 39 fps, while the FX7020 managed 36 fps. The Edge was actually worse at World in Conflict at high-quality (1,920 by 1,200) resolution, scoring 7 fps versus 16 fps for the FX7020. Those are some serious driver issues.

You'd figure that the scores would scale up with the second graphics card, not down. ATI is working on the problem, but until those fixes are confirmed, I'd hold off on any dual-card setup with Radeon 3870 cards. The Edge's multimedia scores are a smidge faster than the FX7020's: 42 seconds on Photoshop CS3 versus 53 seconds for the FX7020, and 1 minute flat at Windows Media Encoder (versus 1:07 for the FX7020), but this doesn't add up to almost $2,000 worth of improvements.

All this means that the Edge comes across as more of a multimedia powerhouse than a mainstream gaming system. Unfortunately, there are other mainstream systems that have better 3D performance with a single graphics card, as well as cheaper multimedia powerhouses, like the HP Pavilion Elite m9040n PC. Sure, the Edge's hard drive capacity is gargantuan versus the FX7020's, but the FX7020 can match or exceed the Edge's multimedia features for a few hundred dollars (the current going price for a 1-terabyte drive). The Edge is more "show-offable" than the FX7020, but again, not almost two grand's worth.

Ostensibly a high-end bargain gaming/multimedia system, the Velocity Micro Edge M40 loses a whole bunch of points because of the shortcomings of the ATI Radeon HD 3870 graphics cards in CrossFire configuration. While this may be fixable in the future, for now the takeaway is simple: Stay away.

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